Forever Strong (2008) on Netflix
Rick Penning, 17, stars on the Arizona rugby team his father coaches. A drunk driving crash sends him to a juvenile center in Salt Lake City, where he joins the Highland side.
- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb7.1/1011,611 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes29%
Trailer
Plot summary
Seventeen years old and the standout on his Arizona high school rugby team, Rick Penning plays under his father, Richard Penning, who coaches the side. After it loses the championship to the Highland Rugby Team, Rick drinks and drives; the crash leaves his girlfriend, Tammy, seriously hurt. A second conviction sends him to a detention center for boys in Salt Lake City. Marcus Tate, who manages the center, assigns him to the Highland squad, the program with a long run of state titles. Its coach, Larry Gelwix, trains players to be champions in life before champions on the field. Rick rejects the idea, and while he stays unwilling, his eighteenth birthday could bring a transfer to State Prison.
Cast
- Kepa Kruseas Tumo (as John Kepa Kruse)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Forever Strong (2008)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Sean Faris ran six miles twice a day to get in shape for the film, and when he sprained his ankle during filming he simply had the ankle taped and carried on shooting.
- The title comes from a phrase Gelwix often shares with his team members, "kia kaha", which in Maori means stay strong; the longer version is "Be forever strong on the field, so that you will be forever strong off the field", and players call these Gelwixisms.
- The character Rick Penning is based on a real member of the rugby team who played in Flagstaff, Arizona, and was sent to a group home in Salt Lake City.
- The film uses the haka "Ka Mate", a traditional Maori dance and song; the Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha is credited with composing that particular haka.
